Crispy Pata
It’s just deep-fried pork leg, how can that be so hard to cook? Nothing difficult about cooking crispy pata. But one can have good crispy pata or terrible crispy pata. Who wants the latter, right?
Pata is the front or hind leg of the pig. In the Philippines, that means the leg AND the trotters (knuckles). Crispy pata means deep fried pata with a crunchy rind and soft and moist meat inside.
The first thing to remember is that the best pata for this dish is that of a young pig. The more mature the pig, the thicker and tougher the rind. The layer of fat will also be thicker. Second, frying is not the only step in cooking this dish–the pata has to be boiled to tenderness prior to deep-frying. Third, we have to separate the myth from the truth.
According to the oldies, one has to drip-dry the pata after boiling and then allow it to air-dry for a day prior to deep-frying. That’s not true. For as long as you drain, cool and, preferably, chill the boiled pata, there’s no reason why you can’t boil and fry it on the same day. That pata you see in the photo was taken out of the freezer at 5.00 p.m., pressure-cooked without thawing completely, drained and cooled, and fried at 7.30 p.m. We finished dinner about thirty minutes ago.
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17 Responses to “Crispy Pata”
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i always cant get the skin to be so puffy,
me too okz. i almost lost a tooth trying to take a bite off my pata. it felt like a piece of stone i can use for the intifada but i will keep trying.
[...] pizza, pancit guisado (vermicelli noodles sautéed with chicken, seafood, and vegetables), and crispy pata, or deep fried pork leg and trotters. It was much too much food (see above), but so good, [...]
[...] Crispy pata (the only of its kind that I eat, made in Sta. Maria, Bulacan) [...]
ano sa tagalog yung peppercorn and bay leaf?
O.K. I’ll try that.. my main problem over here at my place is they only sell pork every day only on Sunday in the chinese market..these are just some of those common problems over here… living in a muslim country.. they don’t eat nor promote port at all.. specially this year..”year of the pig” sigh………..
correction.. that’s pork..he,.he.he….sorry about that..
I went to the market this morning and the pata is in the pressure cooker right now … I hope I ll not miss it because it’s my first time
I ll freeze it and fry it tomorrow 
It was a sucess, looks a litle over cook after the boiling, but it went perfectly with the frying that makes it constitent and CRYSPY ! Mission sucessfull
one thing i learned from my late mom was to add 7up or sprite when boiling the pata. she said it helps make the pata more tender!
ilove crispy pata..
peppercorn = pamintang buo.
bay leaf = dahon ng laurel
tama ba?
Yep.
tanong lang Connie, anong mas ginagamit mong bay leaf, yung FRESH or yung DRIED?
hindi lang para sa pata na recipe ha.
di ko sure kasi kung may particular lang bang dish na gamitin ang fresh or ang dried.
Dried, Joey. Hindi kasing aromatic yung fresh.
i’ll try this recipe for my mom and dad…. thanks